蜉蝣 The Ephemera

本杰明·富兰克林/Benjamin Franklin

You may remember, my dear friend that when we lately spent that happy day in the delightful garden and sweet society of the Moulin Joly, I stopped a little in one of our walks, and stayed some time behind the company. We had been shown numberless skeletons of a kind of little f ly, called an ephemera, whose successive generations, we were told, were bred and expired within the day. I happened to see a living company of them on a leaf, who appeared to be engaged in conversation. You know I understand all the inferior animal tongues. My too great application to the study of them is the best excuse I can give for the little progress I have made in your charming language.

I listened through curiosity to the discourse of these little creatures;but as they, in their national vivacity, spoke three or four together, I could make but little of their conversation. I found, however, by some broken expressions that I heard now and then, they were disputing warmly on the merit of two foreign musicians, one a cousin, the other a moscheto;in which dispute they spent their time, seemingly as regardless of the shortness of life as if they had been sure of living a month. Happy people!Thought I;you are certainly under a wise, just, and mild government, since you have no public grievances to complain of, nor any subject of contention but the perfections and imperfections of foreign music. I turned my head from them to an old gray-headed one, who was single on another leaf, and talking to himself. Being amused with his soliloquy, I put it down in writing, in hopes it will likewise amuse her to whom I am so much indebted for the most pleasing of all amusements, her delicious company and heavenly harmony.

“It was,”said he,“the opinion of learned philosophers of our race, who lived and f lourished long before my time, that this vast world, the Moulin Joly, could not itself subsist more than eighteen hours;and I think there was some foundation for that opinion, since, by the apparent motion of the great luminary that gives life to all nature, and which in my time has evidently declined considerably towards the ocean at the end of our earth, it must then f inish its course, be extinguished in the waters that surround us, and leave the world in cold and darkness, necessarily producing universal death and destruction. I have lived seven of those hours, a great age, being no less than four hundred and twenty minutes of time. How very few of us continue so long!I have seen generations born, f lourish, and expire.”

My present friends are the children and grandchildren of the friends of my youth, who are now, alas, no more!And I must soon follow them;for, by the course of nature, though still in health, I cannot expect to live above seven or eight minutes longer. What now avails all my toil and labor in amassing honey-dew on this leaf, which I cannot live to enjoy!What political struggles I have been engaged in for the good of my compatriot inhabitants of this bush of my philosophical studies for the benef it of our race in general!For in politics what can laws do without morals?Our present race of ephemerae will in a course of minutes become corrupt, like those of other and older bushes, and consequently as wretched. And in philosophy how small our progress!Alas!Art is long, and life is short!My friends would comfort me with the idea of a name they say I shall leave behind me;and they tell me I have lived long enough to nature and to glory. But what will fame be to an ephemera who no longer exists?And what will become of all history in the eighteenth hour, when the world itself, even the whole Moulin Joly, shall come to an end, and be buried in universal ruin?

To me, after all my eager pursuits, no solid pleasures now remain, but the ref lection of a long life spent in meaning well, the sensible conversation of a few good lady ephemerae, and now and then a kind smile and a tune from the ever amiable Brillante.

亲爱的朋友，你可记得，上次我们在芍丽磨坊那让人愉快的花园中参加社团活动的那天，我曾在散步时独自停留了一会儿，落在了人群的后面。是因为有人指给我们看了一种苍蝇一类的小昆虫的残尸——它叫蜉蝣。据说，它们的生命非常短，在一天时间里，可以生生死死好几代。那天，我碰巧在一片叶子上见到了一群鲜活的蜉蝣，它们看上去正忙着交谈。你是知道的，我几乎能懂得所有低等动物的语言。也许，我对研究它们语言的极大热心却成为我在学习你们美妙语言时少有进步的最好借口了。我好奇地倾听着这些小生物的对话，然而它们却在以自己的方式，三个一群，四个一伙地讨论着，我只能听清其中一部分对话。尽管如此，我还是从那些只言片语中听出，它们正在热烈地争论着两位国外音乐家谁的成就更为杰出。这两位音乐家中一位是蚋先生，另一位是蚊先生。它们热烈地讨论着，似乎忘了生命的短暂，好像可以活一个月之久似的。多么快乐啊！我想：你们一定是在一种贤明公正、宽仁待民的政府之下，因为你们既没有抱怨与牢骚，也没有任何的党派之争，而是在颇有闲情地讨论着外国音乐的完美与不完美之处。我将头转向它们中一个白头发的老者，它独自在另一片叶子上自言自语。我觉得它的独白非常有趣，于是把它们记了下来，并且希望这些话同样博她一笑，算作我对她的报答。因为我已受到好友太多的深情厚意，她的清风明月的风度，她的妙音雅奏，一向使我倾倒不已。

老蜉蝣说：“这是在很久很久以前，一位著名哲人认为：我们这个世界——即芍丽磨坊，其生存不会超过十八小时。我想，这个观点一定有所根据的。因为，太阳通过运动赋予了大自然生命，而在我的这个年代里，太阳正在自东往西地移动，明显已经落得很低了，快要沉到我们地球尽头的海洋里去了。太阳必将结束自己的行程，被围绕在我们周围的海水所吞噬，世界变得一片寒冷与黑暗，万物都将死亡与毁灭。我已活过了七个小时，一段看起来不短的时间，足足有四百二十分钟！我们中很少有人能够如此高寿。我目睹了一代又一代人繁衍生息，寿终正寝。我现在的朋友，都是我儿时伙伴的孩子或孙子，而我那些儿时的伙伴却早已不在了。不久，我也会随他们而去，这是自然的规律。虽然目前我还很健康，但是我并不奢望我还能活上个七八分钟。现在我所有的精力都集中在收集这片叶子上的蜜露上，虽然我生前已不可能享受了。我一直热心的政治斗争也是为了居住在这个灌木丛中的所有我的同胞们的利益；我所做的哲学研究同样也是为了我们整个民族共同的利益。可是在政治上，法律没有道德的配合，政治仍旧不能清明。我们现在这一族蜉蝣必须随时警惕，不然在几分钟内，就可能变得像别的老一些的灌木丛中的蜉蝣那样腐化，万劫不复！在哲学这方面我们的成就是多么渺小啊！唉！艺术是永恒的，而生命则是有限的。我的朋友们曾这样安慰我，说我活的时间长得足够让我的名字在我死后流芳千古。但是对于一个已死的蜉蝣来说，名声又有什么意义呢？何况到了第十八个小时的时候，整个芍丽磨坊将会消亡，世界末日已来临，还谈得上什么历史呢？”

对我来说，经过了对所有渴望的追求，别无乐趣了，唯有想起世间众生，人虫不分，如能长寿而为大众服务，这是可以引为自慰的；其次则听听蜉蝣太太与蜉蝣小姐们的高谈阔论，或者说偶然从那可爱的白夫人那里，得到巧笑一顾，或者是婉歌一曲，我的暮年也得到安慰了。

词汇笔记

ephemera[i'femərə]n.生命极短促之物，蜉蝣

There are numberless skeletons of ephemera.

这里有很多蜉蝣的残尸。

inferior[in'fiəriə]adj.差的；自卑的；下级的，下等的

She swore by her inferior clothes to me.

她极力向我推荐她的劣质衣服。

vivacity[vɪ'væsɪti:]n.活泼，快活，有生气

He was charmed by her beauty and vivacity.

他被她的美丽与活泼迷住了。

amiable['eimjəbl]adj.和蔼可亲的；温和的

He is a very obliging, amiable person.

他是一个非常乐于助人、和蔼可亲的人。

小试身手

据说，它们的生命非常短，在一天时间里，可以生生死死好几代。

译______________________________

因为我已受到好友太多的深情厚意，她的清风明月的风度，她的妙音雅奏，一向使我倾倒不已。

译______________________________

艺术是永恒的，而生命则是有限的。

译______________________________

短语家族

……in which dispute they spent their time, seemingly as regardless of the shortness of life as if they had been sure of living a month.

regardless of：不管，不顾，不在意

造______________________________

Our present race of ephemerae will in a course of minutes become corrupt, like those of other and older bushes, and consequently as wretched.

in a course of：在某个过程中

造______________________________